Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Wednesday 24 November 1999

Scottish Executive

Children

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any audit is made of the adequacy or otherwise of care plans made in connection with child supervision orders.

Mr Sam Galbraith: A supervision requirement made by a children’s hearing may remain in force no longer than one year. The supervision requirement must be reviewed by a hearing no later than three months before its expiry or at earlier times if circumstances require. At these reviews the implementation of the care plan will be considered by the hearing in respect of the child concerned and the supervision requirement will be continued, amended or terminated as appropriate.

  There is no formal audit of care plans. However, information on care plans is examined during inspections of secure accommodation and in the context of other reviews. The Scottish Executive also recently issued a research specification into home supervision, which will include an examination of care plans and how they have been implemented.

Community Care

Lewis Macdonald (Aberdeen Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to develop a strategy for carers in Scotland.

Iain Gray: We have produced a document setting out our proposals for a Strategy for Carers in Scotland and copies are available in the document supply centre.

Culture

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive in what budgets it identified savings of £2.1 million in order to fund its rescue package for Scottish Opera.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The money will be found from   savings identified within my budget in the current year.

Education

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider raising the school entry age to six.

Mr Sam Galbraith: We have no present plans to review the school starting age.

Education

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to limit the sale of school playing fields.

Mr Sam Galbraith: Decisions on the disposal of school playing fields are matters for the education authority concerned, subject to the minimum area requirements for the provision of such playing fields set out in regulations. National Planning Policy Guideline 11 provides advice on the land use and planning implications of open space, including school playing fields. By Direction under the town and country planning legislation, the Scottish Ministers must be notified of any planning application which a planning authority is minded to approve which would involve the loss of a playing field where  sportscotland, as a statutory consultee, has advised against the proposal.

Education

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of secondary schools in each local authority offer courses in Modern Studies to Higher level.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The table below shows the latest available information on local authority schools’ plans to offer Modern Studies at Higher level in the 1999-2000 academic session. The information comes from returns collected in August 1999 for the Higher Still Liaison Group.

  


LOCAL AUTHORITY 


L.A. Schools 
  providing Highers (1) 


Number offering 
  Modern Studies 


Percentage 
  




Aberdeen City 
  

13 
  

13 
  

100% 
  



Aberdeenshire 
  

16 
  

16 
  

100% 
  



Angus  
  

8 
  

4 
  

50% 
  



Argyll & Bute 
  

10 
  

6 
  

60% 
  



Clackmannanshire 
  

3 
  

3 
  

100% 
  



Dumfries & Galloway 
  

15 
  

14 
  

93% 
  



Dundee City 
  

10 
  

10 
  

100% 
  



East Ayrshire 
  

9 
  

8 
  

89% 
  



East Dumbartonshire 
  

9 
  

9 
  

100% 
  



East Lothian 
  

6 
  

3 
  

50% 
  



East Renfrewshire 
  

7 
  

5 
  

71% 
  



Edinburgh City 
  

23 
  

17 
  

74% 
  



Falkirk 
  

8 
  

6 
  

75% 
  



Fife 
  

19 
  

19 
  

100% 
  



Glasgow City 
  

30 
  

27 
  

90% 
  



Highland 
  

27 
  

16 
  

59% 
  



Inverclyde 
  

8 
  

7 
  

88% 
  



Midlothian 
  

6 
  

3 
  

50% 
  



Moray 
  

8 
  

8 
  

100% 
  



North Ayrshire 
  

10 
  

10 
  

100% 
  



North Lanarkshire 
  

26 
  

24 
  

92% 
  



Orkney 
  

2 
  

2 
  

100% 
  



Perth & Kinross 
  

9 
  

9 
  

100% 
  



Renfrewshire 
  

14 
  

9 
  

64% 
  



Scottish Borders 
  

9 
  

7 
  

78% 
  



Shetland 
  

2 
  

2 
  

100% 
  



South Ayrshire 
  

9 
  

9 
  

100% 
  



South Lanarkshire 
  

21 
  

18 
  

86% 
  



Stirling 
  

7 
  

7 
  

100% 
  



West Dunbartonshire 
  

7 
  

7 
  

100% 
  



West Lothian 
  

11 
  

9 
  

82% 
  



Eilean Siar 
  

4 
  

2 
  

50% 
  



TOTAL 
  

366 
  

309 
  

84% 
  



  Notes

  1. Excludes schools which do not offer courses at Higher level.

Elderly People

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has in place to help pensioners during any excessively cold weather.

Ms Wendy Alexander: The Warm Deal will make permanent improvements to the homes of pensioners and others on low incomes. It provides a package of insulation measures which can reduce current fuel bills by up to £150 per year or provide more warmth for the same cost. By 2003 100,000 householders are expected to benefit.

  The Warm Deal complements the Chancellor’s Minimum Income Guarantee for pensioners and the new £100 Winter Fuel Payments. For the poorest pensioners, further care help is available in the most severe weather through Cold Weather Payments from the Benefits Agency. Advice for winter is also available to pensioners through the NHS Helpline.

Food

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it can take to ensure that all imported pig meat has been produced to the same health and welfare standards as that produced in the United Kingdom.

Ross Finnie: Food produced within the EU must be produced to minimum common hygiene standards. Similarly, imports from outside the EU must meet the same, or equivalent standards.

  It is illegal to ban imports of meat on animal welfare grounds. However, a new EC Directive, agreed in June 1998 and which must be implemented in Member States by the end of this year, sets out minimum standards on welfare, for all farmed animals. This will encourage a more level playing field for trade in all meat products.

  The EC Directive also requires the Commission to produce a report comparing EU welfare conditions with those of third country suppliers, and international acknowledgement of animal welfare rules is one of the key points of the EU negotiating brief for the current WTO round.

Health

Mr Michael McMahon (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, when work contracts have been awarded by NHS Trusts, any such contracts have attracted capital charges to the National Health Service.

Susan Deacon: Where expenditure on capital projects increases the value of NHS assets this attracts capital charges.

  Projects put forward for capital funding are the subject of business cases, which consider all aspects of the project including the quality of service provision and the financing arrangements. This will include the affordability of the project, which will include any consequential revenue costs of which capital charges are a part.

Health

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what statistics are available, by sex, on the percentage of young people aged 18 or under smoking in the years 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Susan Deacon: The information requested is not available in the format requested. Available data are shown in the following tables:

  Proportion of Scottish secondary school pupils who were regular smokers by sex and age; 1994 to 1998

  


Age 


1994 


1996 


1998 




Boys 
  
 
 
 



Aged 12 
  

2 
  

5 
  

3 
  



Aged 13 
  

11 
  

8 
  

9 
  



Aged 14 
  

15 
  

21 
  

14 
  



Aged15 
  

20 
  

30 
  

25 
  



Total 
  

11 
  

14 
  

11 
  



Girls 
  
 
 
 



Aged 12 
  

3 
  

4 
  

4 
  



Aged 13  
  

10 
  

10 
  

11 
  



Aged 14 
  

21 
  

21 
  

19 
  



Aged 15 
  

23 
  

30 
  

27 
  



Total 
  

13 
  

14 
  

13 
  



  Notes:

  1. Regular smoking is defined as smoking at least one cigarette a week.

  2. Percentages are rounded to nearest whole figure.

  Source: Smoking, drinking and drug use among young teenagers in 1998, conducted by the Office for National Statistics on behalf of the Scottish Executive Health Department.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a national policy to refuse heart transplants to patients beyond a certain age and, if so, what age that is.

Susan Deacon: There is no national policy in Scotland imposing an age limit on access to heart transplantation. Each patient is considered as an individual. Although capacity to benefit from transplantation diminishes with age, the determining factor is the overall likelihood of clinical benefit for each patient.

Health

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S1W-346 by Susan Deacon on 12 July 1999, what are its current plans for the introduction of a ban on tobacco advertising.

Susan Deacon: The legal action in England by the tobacco industry has delayed meantime the introduction of a ban on tobacco advertising. It is clear that there are no substantive points of difference with the position in the rest of the United Kingdom. Given the cross-border flow of newspapers and other publications, it would be impracticable to introduce a ban in Scotland in isolation from the rest of the United Kingdom. Any such move inevitably would result in litigation in Scotland dealing with the same legal points raised in the current proceedings in England. Scottish Ministers are determined to implement our Programme for Government commitment to ban tobacco advertising. Our intention is to introduce the comprehensive measures outlined in the Directive at the earliest possible opportunity when the European Court of Justice has ruled on the validity of the Council Directive banning advertising and sponsorship or the appeal processes in England have been completed.

Highlands and Islands

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to provide assistance to the Glasgow Highlanders’ Institute, in the light of the difficulties it presently faces without permanent premises.

Mr Alasdair Morrison: I am aware of proposals to enable the Glasgow Highlanders’ Institute to replace the premises which it closed some years ago. The Scottish Executive has no plans to provide assistance.

Housing

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to legislate to address the implications of the decision of Sheriff Principal Bowen in the case of Conway versus Glasgow City Council (1999) House.L.R.67 by providing hostel dwellers with the right not to be evicted without legal process.

Jackie Baillie: The Homelessness Task Force, which I chair, has identified a number of issues relating to current legislation as matters for early consideration, including the legal position of people living in hostels. Its recommendations will be included in the Task Force’s first report in the New Year, in time for the inclusion of any legislative changes which it recommends in next year’s Housing Bill.

Justice

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the annual report of the Accountant of Bankruptcy for 1998-99 and whether it is considering reform of the law of sequestration in relation to protected trust deeds.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive has received the annual report of the Accountant in Bankruptcy for 1998-99 and is considering reform of the law of sequestration in relation to protected trust deeds.

Justice

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many protected trust deeds were registered in the financial years 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Mr Jim Wallace: The number of Protected Trust Deeds registered in each of the years is:

 1995-961996-971997-981998-99  525   532   890   1,574

Justice

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing for those debtors whose total unsecured debts do not exceed a specified and relatively small limit, an alternative to sequestration such as the administration order which is available in England, or a procedure which provides a respite within which to determine whether a sequestration decree is necessary.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive has no immediate plans to introduce such changes to the law, but will keep the matter under consideration.

Lifelong Learning

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on the introduction of individual learning accounts in Scotland.

Henry McLeish: All four administrations in the UK are working together to develop a framework for the launch and operation of Individual Learning Accounts next year. Plans for the UK framework, including the procurement of an administrative and customer services provider, are well underway and further details on how the accounts will operate will be available around the turn of the year.

  In Scotland we invited views on the Department for Education and Employment document Individual Learning Accounts – A Summary of Progress during the summer. We received considerable support for the concept in principle and much interest was shown in how they would operate. The feedback from this exercise and from the two development projects currently being run by the enterprise network in Grampian and Fife will inform the final design of Individual Learning Accounts.

  We have set a target of 100,000 accounts to be opened in Scotland by 2002. In addition we have agreed a package of public incentives comprising £150 to spend on learning if an account-holder of one of the first 100,000 accounts saves an initial £25, and discounts on courses thereafter. We have committed £22 million in total over this and the next two years.